Should there be a public service search engine?
There's much talk these days about search. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that it's not very good, for a range of reasons:
It's too personalized It's too ad-financed It's too controlled by the Google It's too controlled by the state It's not controlled enough by the state It's too AI It's not neutral
etc, etc, etc. Politicians are trying to solve some of these by regulating Google, but will that ever solve the actual wants people have? I'm afraid we'll end up worse off on every front: A less useful Google for the people who like it, less reason and room to compete with Google for those who don't. An even stronger Silicon Valley hegemony. Less political and regulatory capacity left for really useful regulation like prohibiting dopamine-hacking of children.
But what's the alternative then? Why not do something radical and launch a non-commercial alternative to Google? Many (most?) European countries have well-funded public service broadcasters. They're already competing with Google via their streaming services and news sites – why not also launch public service search?
I know, I know – building a search index is expensive and hard. Very hard. And leaving search so near the hands of the government sounds even scarier than having it controlled by Google.
But... If they were to succeed to a reasonable amount, there could be more choice. Maybe.